## What
This note already prescribes: *"Before trusting a ratchet: mutate the
shape it claims to catch and confirm it exits non-zero."* This is that
checklist item **executed against all five lifecycle gates** on one
tree, one staged probe file per form. Docs only.
**Two of the five were wrong.**
| gate | catches | does NOT catch |
|---|---|---|
| `lifecycle-column-census` | `===` / `!==` | ~~membership, switch~~
**fixed (#3247)** |
| `check-move-target-literals` | direct + backtick destinations |
~~ternary~~ **fixed (#3250)**; still misses a destination bound to a
local |
| `check-sql-column-literals` | `"column"` comparisons — **including
plain template literals**, not only drizzle `sql` tags | nothing; the
one miss probed was an identifier the schema never uses |
| `check-inert-sync-lane-conversions` | lane reads via the
`resolvePlannerLanes` helper | a **direct**
`store.resolveTaskWorkflowIrSync(...)` read feeding
`resolveLifecycleColumns` — inert by the same mechanism, untracked |
| `check-fnxc-future-dates` | future stamps | nothing — it caught this
table's author, twice |
## The two lessons the table encodes
**A ratchet's blind spot is invisible in exactly the way its subject
is.** Both fixed gaps sat next to a printed zero *and a sentence
promising nothing could land silently*. The count was true. The sentence
was true only for the forms the parser happened to visit. That is the
same shape as the conversions this program spent weeks finding — code
that looks converted because the instrument cannot see the difference.
**Probe correctness is its own trap.** The first census probe measured
nothing: the scanner enumerates git-tracked files, the probe was
untracked, and the scanned-file count staying flat reads *exactly* like
"no gap". A `DELIBERATE-LITERAL` probe likewise read as a broken escape
hatch until the marker moved to its own line — mid-expression it
attaches to the wrong node, which is the documented gotcha, and it still
caught the person who had just written it down.
## Reported, not fixed
The inert-sync gap is left open deliberately: it is one narrow shape,
the only in-tree instance (`replan-target.ts:95`) is documented, new
conversions would use the tracked helper, and that gate has uncommitted
work from another worker. Recording it beats editing a file someone else
is mid-change on.
```
lint clean; fnxc-future-dates: none added; all five gates --strict green on this tree
```
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